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I love the Swiss army knives for a first knife..I have the old BSA knife as my first knife…If you want to go single blade very inexpensive but very well made knife, it cost under $15 made in France ..Opineal #6 JR…They are rounded off but hey a Opineal #6 is only $10.60 on Amazon …Use The TSPAZ ..link and just round one off for him..Opineal makes JR blades rounded off but i have never seen them is stock …If you could get a line on those knives and had the cash to let Opineal know you were serious….Hey Dave Canterbury is the Ambassador for MoraKniv in the USA…Anything can happen

Prescription pain medicine abuse is a real problem. Pain meds usage and prescription need to be approached with care. A former neighbor ruined his life due to a prescription pain addiction. He was police officer that was prescribed Percocet after tearing his bicep. He could not manage the meds and got hooked. After months he hit rock bottom. After a failed suicide attempt he lost his wife, job and his grown children didn’t speak to him for awhile. I saw him not long ago and he’s put his life back together.

Another friend has herniated disks in his neck. He needs surgery, but is more worried about performing for his employer than his health. He is, self admittedly, addicted to oxy. The last I spoke to him he told me he will likely have to go to rehab as part of the surgery (either before or after).

I understand that people do not want to be in pain, but at what risk? After each of my knee surgeries I requested Tylenol w/ Codeine. I don’t know where that falls on the scale of strength for pain meds, but I know that it didn’t always dull all the pain. I never used a full prescription and always threw them away after I didn’t need them.

An interesting side note. When we recently tried to sell our house, our realtor told us to hide or lock up prescription meds as they are one of the most highly stolen items in houses during showings.

I’ll put a vote in for a Mora as a very good knife, at a very good price, if you’re looking for a fixed blade for a youngster.

Oh the joys of Harbor Freight! I wouldn’t buy any cordless tools there since the batteries are the heart of anything cordless, and the HF stuff seems to be a ways behind the name brand stuff. What good is a tool that you only need to use occasionally, if the batteries are junk when you go to use it? Better off investing in a corded tool for that type of use since you’ll likely have it the rest of your life.

A few months ago I bought a couple more 4.5″ angle grinders for $5.99/ea. It’s so handy to just have one set up with a wire brush, one with a cut-off wheel, one with a sanding disc, and one with a grinding disc.

I have a couple of smaller aquaponics systems (2 IBC beds each) and have had very good luck with their 264 GPH fountain pumps. They go 6 months or so before I need to replace the shafts but I just clip off another length of stainless TIG welding rod and they’re good to go. I don’t think I’ve actually burned one out in the 5 years I’ve used them. A good deal at ~$12 on sale.

I also bought their 8750 watt generator recently, but time will tell if that was a decent purchase. It was a return and they had it priced at $400, with a 3 day return policy. Their regular price is $599 on it. It looks brand new but I think someone left the choke on since the oil seemed to be washed down with gas. I changed the oil, and have since run it several days without any problems. I kind of worry about depending on HF for an emergency item, but until I decide to spend the $10K for a whole back-up system, it’s what I have.

Love my $18 HF pneumatic stapler for installing chicken wire or hardware cloth. Built a couple chicken tractors recently and used 2-3000 3/4″ staples without a single jam. At 1/5 the cost of a name brand unit, I think it’s a well valued product from HF. Since it has worked so well this far, I might pick up one of their framing nailers and give it a shot.

As for Harbor Freight tool sets, just one note is don’t trust the ratchets. I got a tool set as a spare for a car and the sockets were fine, but the ratchet was worthless. My best buy from HF was an $8 heat gun. Yeah a lighter is OK for heat shrink tubing, but this will do it better. Also it’s great if you ever have to bend plastic. I got it to make lexan risers for my wife, but I find I use it for lots of things now.

We have a similar place in Canada. “Princess Auto”. Their house brand is “Powerfist”. I got a 5 ton electric log splitter there for $239cdn. It’s great. Their Multi-meters are good for about three or four years but good price. I wander in there once a week. Scored on some nice Ice-tracks for my shoes in winter. Overall I think they are comparable stores

I have not raised as many pigs as Darby, yet I do know that I have raised one boar (and many other sows and slips). My board was 2 years old when I had to put him down.

The boar was by breeding boar so he was not castrated. According to Darby, the meat should have tasted terrible, yet I did not experience this. Everyone who shared in the meat said it tasted delicious. There was no evidence of taint in the meat.

I am sure that for some (or possibly the majority) of the boars that are butchered, the meat tastes bad… yet I would say that (with respect to Darby) it doesn’t always taste terrible.